AI search and working with a developer
What is Backlink?
A backlink is a link from another site to yours. Links remain one of the strongest ranking signals, and the number of distinct referring domains matters far more than the total link count — fifty links from one site is roughly one endorsement.
Also called: inbound link · referring domain
What makes a link valuable
- Editorial placement — someone chose to link because the content warranted it
- Topical relevance between the linking page and yours
- A site with genuine authority of its own
- Anchor text that describes the destination naturally
- A page that real people actually visit
What to avoid, and why it is arithmetic rather than ethics
Bought links, guest post networks, directory packages and reciprocal schemes all work until they are detected. Detection costs the site rather than the gain, and every recovery costs more than the shortcut saved.
The only realistic route for a small site
Publish something worth citing. Nobody links to a services page; people link to a tool, a piece of original research, or a guide that answered something properly. That is slow and it is the only method that survives an algorithm update.
Where this is covered in depth
A definition can only go so far. The 35 types of SEO, explained without the padding covers this properly — 6 minutes, free, no email required.
Who wrote this
Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan. These definitions come from client work rather than from a content brief — where an entry describes a mistake, it is usually one found on a real site. More about how I work.